


flutter

by jjokkiri



Category: Produce 101 (TV), UP10TION
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Relationship, student council president wooseok? yes.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22414765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: Wooseok has a super-secret mission to complete every day after school. For the past few months, he’s been writing love letters to stuff into Lee Jinhyuk’s locker.
Relationships: Kim Wooseok | Wooshin/Lee Jinhyuk
Comments: 14
Kudos: 113





	flutter

“You know, they’re right when they say that the student council president doesn’t have a heart,” Seon Yein did his best to sound hurt. He emphasized his words and he pouted at Kim Wooseok from the door. Yein was leaning against the doorframe, hugging the door childishly. “He doesn’t even have the heart to forget about his duties for a day to walk home with his best friend.”

“Yein,” Wooseok furrowed his eyebrows and shuffled the papers on his desk. “I literally live next to you.”

Yein shrugged his shoulders, “And? That’s why you should be walking home with me.”

Wooseok rolled his eyes. He tapped his pen against the stack of papers on his desk, “You say that like you didn’t heartlessly abandon me in tenth grade because you wanted to walk home with that one senior.”

Yein’s jaw dropped.

“That was two years ago, Wooseok!” Yein cried. He let go of the door and huffed, “I can’t believe you’re still holding that against me. He was very cute and offered to walk me home!”

Wooseok crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his elbows against the desk.

“If you were willing to abandon me for a boy two years ago, you’re willing to do it again.”

Yein scrunched up his nose in disdain at Wooseok’s accusation. 

“It wasn’t even that bad, was it?” he frowned at Wooseok. “Besides, didn’t Jinhyuk walk you home?”

Wooseok fell silent. He looked down at the papers on his desk. Wooseok brought his pen back down against the sheet of paper and pretended to underline a row of important text on the sheet. From Yein’s distance, he wouldn’t be able to tell that Wooseok was scribbling a random line to avoid eye contact.

 _Jinhyuk._

Lee Jinhyuk was the charming boy whose locker was across the hall from Wooseok’s. They met briefly for the first time at the student orientation when they started high school and they didn’t really talk again until the day that Yein left him to walk home alone in tenth grade. He _did_ walk home with him on the day that Yein abandoned him to walk home with the cute, dimpled senior that Wooseok couldn’t remember the name of. 

Jinhyuk had approached him after Yein ran off with the senior student with a shy smile on his lips. He had his backpack slung over his shoulder and he tilted his head at Wooseok before he spoke ( _“Do you want someone to walk home with? I overheard that Yein was leaving you to walk home with someone else, today,”_ he said). 

Wooseok dug his tongue against the inside of his cheek. He sighed.

“He… he walked home _with_ me,” he replied. “He didn’t walk me home. There’s a difference.”

Yein sniffed. 

“If I didn’t know any better,” he started with his arms crossed over his chest. He directed a pointed look at Wooseok, “I would actually think that you sounded upset about the fact that Jinhyuk didn’t walk you home, just as that cute senior walked _me_ home.”

Before Wooseok could fight his best friend about the remark, Yein grinned. 

“But the whole school knows that the student council president doesn’t have a heart, so he wouldn’t ever be upset about something so trivial, aren’t I right?”

Yein flashed him a wicked grin as if he knew something that Wooseok didn’t. 

And truthfully, there wasn’t anything that Yein could blackmail Wooseok with. There wasn’t anything that Yein knew about Wooseok that he didn’t know himself. But still, there was an uncomfortable chill that found its way down Wooseok’s back from the look on his best friend’s face. 

He fidgeted with the pen in his hands, spinning it between his long fingers.

“Just go home,” he said. He scrunched up his nose at his best friend, “Your mom is going to wonder why you’re coming home so late. Go home and tell your mom that I’m coming over later.”

Yein huffed, “You just want her to make pudding for you.” Yein rolled his eyes. “She always makes pudding when she knows you’re coming over. She won’t even make it for her own son but she’ll do it for you.”

Wooseok laughed, “Just _go_ , Yein.”

“Why do you want me to leave so badly?” Yein asked. “Do you have a super-secret mission to do?”

Wooseok snorted. He ran his fingers through his own hair, brushing his dark locks out of his eyes. 

He replied, “Super-secret? I just have to finish all this student council stuff. The annual school festival is in a few weeks and we don’t have anything prepared for it, yet.”

Yein laughed.

“You know,” he said, “when we graduate, they’re never going to find a student council president who will be so diligent about his work. You’re not even getting paid to do this, Seok. There won’t be any other student who is so willing to stay after school almost every single day to finish up his work.”

Wooseok shrugged. He chuckled, “I guess I’m making a legacy that no one can live up to.”

“This school is going to beg you to come back as an alumni student council president,” Yein said. “Because they know that you’re impossibly good at everything you do. Plus, you’re probably going to be equally as dedicated to all this student council stuff even when you graduate.”

Wooseok made a face. Quietly, he said, “I don’t think so. I don’t think there will be much of a reason for me to keep coming back here once we graduate.”

Yein looked at him weirdly. “That sounds like you keep staying after school for something that’s going to leave once we graduate.”

Nervously, Wooseok flashed a smile.

“Um, yeah?” he replied. “My responsibilities as the student council president?”

Yein rolled his eyes. 

“Okay, whatever, you loser,” he said. “I’m going to go home. I’m telling my mom that you’re coming over but I’m going to tell her to not make pudding. You’re weird.”

 _“See,”_ Wooseok said. He tapped his pen against the piece of paper in front of him, “I don’t know where everyone gets that idea that I’m some cold-hearted president when you’re constantly calling me a loser because I like the pudding that your mom makes.”

Yein stuck his tongue out. “It’s because no one bothers to correct them, Mister President.”

And then, he was gone.

Wooseok waited for his best friend’s footsteps to fade out of earshot. 

And then, he waited a couple more minutes. 

When he was certain that Yein was no longer in the building, Wooseok slowly got out of his seat at the desk.

With quiet footsteps, he made his way to the door of the classroom. He peeked down the empty hallway. The windows above the lockers streamed a golden light onto the tiled floors of the hallway. 

It was quiet and there wasn’t a single person to be seen. 

All the teachers had already left the building—most of them left the building as soon as the last bell rang—and there was some time before the janitors would come into the school. Wooseok would be done doing what he needed to do by the time the janitors got to the school.

Wooseok exhaled a quiet breath of relief. _The school was finally empty._

Wooseok rushed back into the classroom and dug through his backpack to pull out a small white envelope, carefully hidden in one of the deep pockets behind his notebooks—carefully hidden from anyone who might go through his backpack (read: Yein and Changhyun, who frequently dug through his bag for snacks).

Clutching the envelope to his chest, Wooseok’s quick footsteps took him back into the hallway. He walked directly to the locker directly across the hall from his own. And then, with a deep breath, Wooseok slipped the envelope into the slat between the door of the locker and its frame. 

The letter fell against the metal with a quiet sound.

As he turned away from Jinhyuk’s locker, he heard the sound of footsteps moving down the hallway.

Wooseok froze in his steps. 

He was careful. 

He was always so careful. 

_How could he get caught like this?_

“Wooseok?”

The voice was already familiar. Doubtful, he turned to the source of the voice with wide eyes. And as soon as he turned to look, his line of sight was filled with 185 centimetres of tall and handsome. Much to Wooseok’s greatest demise, Lee Jinhyuk stood several meters away from him in the hallway.

“Jinhyuk,” he breathed. “You’re still here?”

Jinhyuk nodded his head. 

“I actually already left but then I realized I forgot something important. I ran into Yein on the street and he told me that you were still at school, when I asked why you weren’t walking together,” Jinhyuk explained. Jinhyuk approached him with quiet footsteps, “I came back because I realized I needed your signature to approve something for the yearbook. I was kind of hoping that you were still here.”

Wooseok swallowed.

“Oh,” he said. _Maybe Jinhyuk hadn’t seen him slip the envelope into his locker. Maybe he was still safe._ Wooseok cleared his throat, “Is it for the yearbook club’s photography rights at the school festival?”

Jinhyuk nodded his head. He smiled, “As expected of our student council president. You know when all the deadlines for the permission slips are.”

Wooseok laughed quietly. “You know that I would sign the permission slips and backdate them if any of the major clubs missed out on the deadlines, anyway.”

Jinhyuk smiled.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know. I don’t know why everyone thinks you’re so heartless when you would literally do anything and everything to keep the student body happy.”

Wooseok felt his cheeks warm up. He looked down at his shoes.

“You flatter me,” he murmured. “It’s really not that big of a deal. Just bring me the permission slip.”

Jinhyuk nodded his head. Wooseok turned on his heel to walk out of the hallway and back into the classroom that the student council used as their makeshift office. 

There was the sound of jostling metal as Jinhyuk opened his locker.

“Oh?” Jinhyuk watched the white envelope float to the floor. He bent down to pick it up, murmuring under his breath, “That wasn’t there when I left the school.”

Wooseok froze.

He turned to look over his shoulder. 

Nervously, he asked, “What is it?”

Jinhyuk shrugged his shoulders. He scratched the back of his neck with a shy smile.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to tell you what it is,” he said. 

But despite his words, he began to explain to Wooseok what the envelope in his hand was. He said, “I’ve just been getting these anonymous love letters in my locker for a couple of months, now. I usually find a new one in my locker every morning.” He smiled down at the envelope clutched between his fingers, fondly, “I guess they’re a little early. I got two, today.”

“Love letters?” Wooseok asked. He resisted the urge to run away from Jinhyuk and hide in a corner where no one would ever be able to find him, embarrassed. “Isn’t that kind of old-fashioned?”

Jinhyuk shrugged, again.

“Old-fashioned or not,” he said, “I think it’s kind of cute. Whoever writes them has a really pretty way of writing. It’s kind of something that I look forward to every day, now.” He looked down at the envelope, contemplating opening it, “I wish I knew who they were, though.”

“You think it’s cute?”

Jinhyuk nodded his head, “It’s adorable.”

He opened the flap of the envelope and peeked inside. Wooseok panicked.

“Should you be opening that in front of me?” he exclaimed, eyes wide with horror. He couldn’t watch Jinhyuk react to the letter that he slipped into his locker in person. Wooseok almost lost his composure, “I really don’t think you should be opening that in front of me.”

Jinhyuk glanced up at him. He blinked, “Why?”

“Shouldn’t you be opening and reading it somewhere private?” he said, “As respect for the person who wrote the letter? I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to be reading it in front of someone else.”

Jinhyuk gave him a funny look. He nodded his head slowly and folded the flap of the envelope back down. He slipped the envelope into his pocket. Then, he dug through his locker to find the permission slip that he was searching for before the love letter had interrupted them.

Wooseok felt like he dodged a bullet. He didn’t do anything but he felt winded.

He turned on his heel with his eyes wide. He made a beeline back into the student council office. 

“I’ll be in the office,” he said. “Come find me when you find the permission slip.”

Jinhyuk followed his footsteps shortly after Wooseok took a seat at his desk and flipped through some of the paperwork that was left on his desk. He was willing to do anything to distract himself from the fact that his crush was ready to open the love letter that he wrote to him, right in front of him.

Wooseok didn’t get very much time to himself.

Jinhyuk’s voice made his presence known before Wooseok noticed that he had entered the room.

“Oh, not a lot of people own that pen,” Jinhyuk remarked as he pulled up a seat next to Wooseok. Wooseok glanced down at the felt-tipped pen in his hands. “They can’t write very nicely with it because of the feathering.”

Wooseok pursed his lips, “I like it. It’s not that bad.”

Jinhyuk smiled, “I know. You’re using it. Of course, you like it.”

Wooseok made a face at him. He impatiently tapped his pen against the desk with a playful frown at Jinhyuk, “Okay, where’s the permission slip that you needed me to sign?”

Jinhyuk placed the slip of paper onto the desk. Wooseok took it from him and moved the other sheets of paper from under it to give himself space to write. He glanced at the clock mounted on the wall and scribbled down the date. Then, he scribbled his signature at the bottom of the piece of paper. 

“Your penmanship is so nice,” Jinhyuk remarked. “It’s cute, but somehow, it’s almost unreadable. It’s almost like you don’t want to lift your pen off the piece of paper.”

Wooseok narrowed his eyes at Jinhyuk.

“Are you complimenting me or are you making fun of me, right now?”

Jinhyuk grinned.

“I’m complimenting you,” he said. He pointed to the empty box next to Wooseok’s signature. “You forgot to write my name in the box to verify who got the signature from you.”

Wooseok rolled his eyes, “You and Gyujin are the only members of the yearbook club. It’s either going to be you or him. Besides, I’m the one who audits all these permission slips, anyway.”

“The student council president is avoiding protocol?” Jinhyuk gasped, dramatically.

Wooseok nudged him with a frown. Jinhyuk laughed.

“Just write my name in the box,” he said. Wooseok scrunched up his nose at him.

Then, wordlessly, he neatly wrote in the box: _‘Lee Jinhyuk’_.

There was a beat of silence. The realization of what happened suddenly struck Wooseok.

Jinhyuk looked at him.

Wooseok kept his eyes trained on the piece of paper, unwilling to look away.

“… Wooseok,” Jinhyuk called, quietly. Wooseok tensed at the sound of his voice. He reached for the permission slip and traced his finger just under the drying ink of his name. “I know this is going to sound really weird but… is there something you’re hiding from me?”

Wooseok swallowed. Weakly, he said, “… What would I be hiding from you?”

Jinhyuk quietly pulled the envelope out of his pocket.

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions,” he started, “but, I’ve never seen my name written like that other than when I see it written on the letters that I get in my locker. And… our student body is a little bit too small for there to be someone that has penmanship identical to yours.”

He opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

“… And the feathering of the pen is… exactly as it is on the permission slip,” he murmured. 

Jinhyuk looked over at Wooseok, who refused to meet his eyes. He could feel his ears burning with the heat of his embarrassment. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what his face looked like. 

“Wooseok… you like me, right?”

Wooseok clasped his hands together and wrung them together, nervously. He resisted the urge to visibly squirm in his seat at the question. He could tell that his ears were burning bright red from embarrassment—he could feel the heat of the embarrassment. He swallowed, hard.

“… So, what if I do?” he mumbled. He hated how vulnerable he sounded. Wooseok bit down on his lower lip and peeked at Jinhyuk, “So what if it’s me who has been writing you all of those letters for the past few months? What are you going to do about it?”

Jinhyuk rested his elbow against the desk and he smiled.

Wooseok looked at him weirdly.

“… Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Are you busy after school today, Wooseok?” he asked. 

Wooseok looked confused.

“I… I’m supposed to go to Yein’s house…” he managed to say. He blinked rapidly in confusion. “Why?”

Jinhyuk nodded his head thoughtfully.

“Then, what about tomorrow? Tomorrow after school. Do you have any plans?”

Wooseok shifted his eyes rapidly. “No? I don’t…?”

Jinhyuk smiled, “Okay. Then, do you want to go on a date with me after school tomorrow?”

“Are you kidding? Don’t joke around with me like this, Jinhyuk.”

Jinhyuk reached for Wooseok’s hand on the table. He linked their fingers. Wooseok stared at their entwined fingers in disbelief. “I’m not kidding, Wooseok. I want to take you out on a date.”

“You can think about it after I walk you home just like I did in tenth grade,” he said. Jinhyuk flashed him a kind smile. “I’ll give you until tomorrow at lunchtime to tell me if you want to go on a date with me, okay?”

“You remember that?” Wooseok asked.

Jinhyuk laughed. “What? Walking you home after school?” 

“Yes.”

Jinhyuk fixed him with an amused look, “You know, Wooseok, I didn’t ask to walk you home _because_ Yein abandoned you. I walked you home because I was waiting for a chance to do it.” 

Wooseok gaped at him. “You _wanted_ to walk me home from school?”

“Why wouldn't I want to walk you home?” Jinhyuk smiled kindly at him, “It’s kind of embarrassing, but… I was waiting to do it for so long because I had a crush on you. And then, Yein abandoning you for that cute senior just happened to speed up the process of having me ask.”

He sighed, “And then, it got so complicated when you got busy with all these student council responsibilities. And I lost a little bit of hope when everyone started spreading those rumours about how you wouldn’t ever have a crush on _anyone_ because you were apparently heartless.”

Wooseok had already tuned Jinhyuk’s words out after his confession.

Wooseok covered his mouth with his hands. He could feel the bubble of excitement in his stomach. _Jinhyuk had a crush on him?_ As if it weren’t already so obvious that Jinhyuk had feelings for him from their conversation, Wooseok felt his heart leap in his chest at the vocal confirmation that Jinhyuk _liked_ him.

“I’ll do it,” he muttered. 

Jinhyuk looked confused. “Do what?”

“Go on a date with you tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/yuseokki) / [cc](https://curiouscat.me/jjokkiri) ♡  
> hi! i'm back. it feels like it's been so long. this tag is still home to me. ; v ; but i still don't know what i'm doing.


End file.
